Leverkusen players overjoyed with home win over Bayern Munich

Bayer Leverkusen players took some time after the match to enjoy a hard-earned 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich.

“Bayern definitely didn’t have their best day, but ours was better,” said Leverkusen keeper Lukas Hradecky (via FCBayern.com). “We can be proud of our performance. We can praise everyone today. Everyone played their part in this win.”

“We’re very happy about the win,” added midfielder Robert Andrich. “We changed our plan a little bit, which gave us more possibilities. We were aggressive off the ball and had lots of turnovers. But we were still 1-0 down at half-time. The way we came back and defended passionately until the end, that was great.”

Another dismal entry point into an international break for the Bavarians, mirroring their September slide which was marked by a defeat to FC Augsburg. Bayern have more trouble, too, with key players Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Jamal Musiala dealing with injury issues of late. Musiala, at least, could be due to miss the next league game against Borussia Dortmund.

But as Hradecky said, it wasn’t Bayern’s weakness so much as Leverkusen’s strength to which to attribute the surprise result. Coach and Bayern alum Xabi Alonso has turned around the season in Leverkusen, delivering one of the league’s stronger records in his time at the helm.

Leverkusen are still 8th but play the 6th and 7th ranked teams — Frankfurt and Wolfsburg — within their next three Bundesliga matchdways. Could this be the start of an accelerated run into Europa and even Champions League contention? Don’t count them out just yet!

Want more discussion about the game? Check out the post-game podcast! Samrin breaks down team selection, substitutions, big omissions for Bayern and Germany, and a look ahead at the Champions League tie against Manchester City. Listen below or on Spotify!

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